Recreational vehicles such as boats and snowmobiles are usually transported from one location to another by use of a towed trailer on which the recreational vehicle is mounted. Typically, these trailers are towed by a family automobile or other powered vehicle having a towing rig mounted at the back end thereof.
Laws in many states require that vehicle lighting systems be mounted at the rear end of the trailer. These systems include night driving light, backing lights, and braking lights.
In structures known in the art, these lights, typically, are fixedly mounted to the towed trailer. The specific locations across the rear end of the towed vehicle and the heights above the ground at which the lights are mounted vary from vehicle to vehicle. Invariably, however, the positioning of the lights is such that significant problems are encountered when the recreational vehicle carried by the trailer is a boat.
Launching of a boat mounted to such a trailer is usually accomplished in the following manner. A ramp is provided at the launching site angling downward into the water, and the trailer may be backed down the ramp until the boat is at a position with respect to the surface of the water at which the boat, when the gripes securing it to the towed trailer are removed, will be flotatably supported on the surface of the water because of its natural buoyancy. A portion of the trailer is, necessarily, submerged in effecting this launching procedure. The portion of the trailer which becomes submerged depends upon the configuration of the trailer and the angle of the ramp with respect to the surface of the water.
Even where the sloping of the launching ramp is gradual, the lighting system of the trailer is likely to become submerged prior to the time the boat is at its release position. Since the trailer is backed to this release position, the backing lights are on during the performance of the evolution. Depending upon the extent of prior use of the lights and the length of time in completing the evolution, the lights may become very hot. There can, therefore, be a significant temperature differential between the lights and the body of water in which the boat is being placed. Frequently, because of this temperature differential, the light bulbs explode.
Even in warmer bodies of water where the temperature differential is not sufficient to cause explosion of the lights, direct exposure to the water can induce corrosion of the metal components of the lighting fixtures. Corrosion will be particularly acute when the trailer is, on numerous occasions, backed into a body of salt water. As the fixtures corrode, they concurrently deteriorate.
It is these problems in the art which the invention of the present application is designed to overcome. It provides a structure which can be detached and raised to an appropriate height so that, as the trailer is backed down the ramp, the lights and their appurtenant fittings do not come in contact with the water.